This week, D&M holding killed the RIO line of MP3 players because they simply could not compete with the iPod. What makes this amazing is that a few years ago the RIO, then owned by S3, was competing with Creative Labs for this market and was largely believed to be the company to beat. Apple came out of nowhere as a failing PC company and not only took the market away from Creative Labs and RIO, but grew the market to be vastly larger than before.

Apple was successful because they created a product that was easier to use, had adequate capacity, was portable, and looked gorgeous. RIO and Creative Labs actually got a year’s warning when the device initially launched on Apple only: The vast majority of Windows users returned the device the following January after the first Christmas buying season. But neither company could see the obvious approach of a massive new player and the result is now history.